SAO PAULO – President Michel Temer said on Monday that division among Brazilians was unacceptable, promised to “unite” the country and insisted that the South American giant is not “going to stop” moving forward despite the serious political crisis confronting it and the complaints of corruption lodged against him.

“It’s unacceptable for Brazilians to go after Brazilians. We have to unite Brazil,” the president said during an official event in Sao Paulo in which Defense Minister Raul Jungmann and city mayor Joao Doria also took part.

Temer, who last week achieved an important victory in Congress after the full House of Deputies voted in favor of shelving a corruption complaint against him, emphasized that Brazil has “difficulties” and an “excess of emotions.”

The country is going through a prolonged political crisis that has intensified in recent months after Temer was accused by a businessman of receiving bribes during his mandate, which began a year ago after the ouster of Dilma Rousseff.

With the support of his political base, Temer managed to deal with the complaint presented by General Prosecutor Rodrigo Janot, thus dodging a corruption trial.

During the ceremony held in Sao Paulo, Temer also praised Mayor Doria, whose name has cropped up among the possible presidential candidates to be fielded in 2018 by the governing PSDB party.

Doria “understands as nobody else the country’s problems. His vision is not only municipal, it’s also national,” said Temer during the signing of an agreement transferring to the City Hall jurisdiction a portion of the Campo de Marte airport for construction of a public park.

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